Russian Businesses Raise Prices as VAT Hike and War Spending Fuel Inflation Surge

• Russian businesses are raising prices in response to a VAT increase from 20% to 22% and expanded VAT requirements for small businesses.
• Price hikes have already occurred across sectors: logistics (10-20%), food service, fitness, healthcare, education (8-10%), and IT/digital services (5-7%).
• Businesses cite higher labor, rent, utilities, fuel, and equipment costs, as well as inventory shortages, as reasons for the increases.
• The Finance Ministry expects the tax changes to generate an additional 3.2 trillion rubles ($40.96 billion), mainly for defense and security spending.
• Inflation is expected to rise modestly, with the Central Bank forecasting 4-5% by year-end.

Source: themoscowtimes.com

Note that this post was (partially) written with the help of AI. It is always useful to review the original source material, and where needed to obtain (local) advice from a specialist.

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